Sir John Legard, 1st Baronet

Sir John Legard, 1st Baronet (1631 – 1 July 1678), of Ganton in Yorkshire, was an English landowner and Member of Parliament.

biographical notes

The Legard Baronetcy, of Ganton in the County of York, is a title in the Baronetage of England. Since 1959, the family seat has been Scampston Hall, in Malton, North Yorkshire. The baronetcy was created on 29 December 1660 for John Legard, a Royalist member of the Yorkshire gentry who fought in the Civil War and sat as the Member of Parliament for Scarborough after the Restoration.

Legard’s family became armigerous in 1564, and his great-grandfather, a London Haberdasher of Yorkshire origin, bought Ganton in 1583. His grandfather supported Parliament at the outset of the Civil War, and he himself held county office during the Interregnum. But he assisted Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax, in the seizure of York in January 1660, and signed the Yorkshire petition for a free Parliament.

Family and Education

b. c.1631, 1st s. of John Legard (d.1638) of Ganton by Mary, da. and h. of John Dawnay of Brompton Potter. educ. Clare, Camb. 1649; M. Temple 1650. m. (1) 18 Oct. 1655, Grace, da. of Conyers Darcy of Hornby Castle (later 1st Earl of Holdernesse), 1da.; (2) 12 Aug. 1658, Frances, da. and coh. of Sir Thomas Widdrington of Cheeseburn Grange, Stamfordham, Northumb., 4s. 2da. suc. gdfa. 1643; cr. Bt. 29 Dec. 1660.1

In 1655 he married Grace Darcy (d. 1658), daughter of The Earl of Holderness.

1. They had one child Grace, who married John Hill of Thornton.

After the death of his first wife he remarried, on 12 August 1658, his second wife being Frances Widdrington, daughter of Sir Thomas Widdrington, a former Speaker of the House of Commons.

They had six children:

1. John (1659–1715), who succeeded him in the baronetcy
2. Dorothy, who married Thomas Grimston of Grimston Garth
3. Frances, who married George Bowes
4. and three other sons.

Links

• http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/le...
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legard_Baronets
• http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I37948&tree=...